We’re all just walking each other home

The title for this piece came from a film I watched this weekend called Becoming Nobody. For me it releases any pressure we may feel about this life. It's simple in it's intention. We're all just walking each other home.

The same teacher who recommended this film also said these words to me.

“Only I alone can do this, but I cannot do this alone”.

Through the pandemic many of my support mechanisms fell away. And it wasn’t just the support mechanisms in the true sense, but the often invisible mechanisms that hold us so deeply. That in any other circumstances we may not even recognise as support.

Just being with friends and family. The ability to go out and have a change of scenery. Calling on someone to look after the children whilst I pop out for a bit. Date night with my husband. Taking the kids out for the day. A coffee in my local coffee shop whilst reading a book. Even the uninhibited school run.

I am still feeling the impacts of the past year deeply - in my mind, my body and my soul. Many of us are.

So as we transition again this year, into another phase of the pandemic in the UK I’m looking at how I need to support myself. What I can do for me and where I need to ask for support.

The care I need to take for myself and for my family, is beyond what I’ve needed in recent years.

It needs to be different because this experience is unlike anything we’ve experienced before (and we continue to experience). I feel a strong need for nurture, first and foremost, and to be supported by someone outside of myself. And then for rest, play and fun.

What do you need? So often we become disconnected from what we need, that we don’t even recognise what it is that we require. If we do, we might ignore those messages, even when they’re screaming out at us.

We make it wrong to have needs.

The reality is that we are all human, and as humans we have needs. It’s whether we can allow ourselves to acknowledge those needs and then take the steps to get those needs met.

It’s easy to say these words, I know it is. It can be harder in practice, particularly with the limitations that we have faced as part of the pandemic.

I want to invite you to take a moment to reflect on what it is you need. What's demanding your attention?

Then how can you support yourself? And what do you need to ask from others?

It will take time. We don’t need to rush.

Only you alone can do this, but you cannot do this alone.